Eustis Middle School principal's demotion draws slew of protest

MINNEOLA — Dozens of angry community members crowded the auditorium at Lake Minneola High on Monday to demand the reinstatement of a longtime principal they said was wrongly demoted by the district.

But the tactic didn't work — Lake County School Board members voted 3-2 to uphold Superintendent Susan Moxley's July 31 decision to move David Cunningham from Eustis Middle School principal to social studies teacher at Lake Minneola High.

Cunningham told board members and about 30 supportershe doesn't know why he was demoted.

"When I asked the superintendent, she said 'for the good of the district,' " he said. "When I see decisions that are being made directly by our superintendent that adversely impact my school or my constituency, especially when I discuss all of these issues with the superintendent, then I would be remiss as a principal if I don't act."

Most of his backers assumed that the 57-year-old principal was sent back to the classroom because he criticized Moxley during a July 28 School Board meeting, saying she is behind a drop in academic performance.

Asked why Cunningham was busted down to teacher, the schools' spokesman sent documents that contained no explanation.

However,board member Bill Mathias later said he was told that Cunningham's demotion stemmed from his actions at a mandatory principals' meeting the day after he spoke at the board meeting. Mathias said Cunningham left the meeting and Aurelia Cole, the district's chief of administration, told him he could leave to take care of personal business from a car accident as long as he came back. He didn't return, Mathias said.

"It's a pattern of insubordination," Mathias said. "If he had a mandatory meeting and people just decided they didn't want to attend, what would his reaction be?"

However, Mathias said he did not know whether any administrators had told Cunningham specifically why he was being demoted. Cunningham couldn't be reached.

Two days after he spoke,Cunningham received a memo from Moxley saying he was being reassigned and was forbidden to return to his former school or have any contact with employees there. He will continue to be paid his principal salary of $93,750 while he teaches until his contact expires next year.

Some of his supporters cited race — Cunningham is black — as a factor in his demotion. Others said the superintendent's accountability and standards are unfair.

"We don't need any division in the church house, neither do we need it in the school house," said Pastor Harry Harris of Poe's Memorial Baptist Church in Eustis. "A lot of times when we are upset, we like to say anything, do a lot of things that we have no intention. But we have to look at the individual. Everybody deserves a second chance."

However, some board members said Cunningham's behavior at the meeting several weeks ago was unacceptable.

Board member Kyleen Fischer, joined by Tod Howard, voted against Cunningham's demotion. Fischer said it was unacceptable that she wasn't notified about Cunningham's demotion until after Moxley sent him the memo.

"Board members, I think this is one of the most unfortunate evenings that we've ever had," Fischer said. "David Cunningham is the right person in the right place."

After the crowd of peeved supporters shuffled out of the auditorium, one shouting, "We don't have a voice anymore!," Moxley addressed the issue.

"Sometimes not everybody agrees with those recommendations — obviously that is the case about 100 percent of the time," she said. "I heard that there's a revolving door of principal change after principal change after principal change. The fact of the matter is I don't like changing principals any more than anybody else does."

She said she has never retaliated on any employee who has confronted her about education concerns. In June, principal Rhonda Hunt confronted board members to protest her transfer from Lost Lake Elementary in Clermont to Eustis Heights Elementary. Hunt is still principal at Eustis Heights.

Cunningham, who served as the district's No. 2 administrator under former Superintendent Anna Cowin, recently applied for the same vacant position, chief of administration, but was told he didn't get it. Instead, Marilyn Doyle, who was on the committee who interviewed him for the job, was promoted. She didn't apply for the position.

He said his demotion was not in the best interest of his community, as Moxley's memo stated.

"If there's problems in the family, they need to be discussed," Cunningham said. "Nobody's winning here. The students of Lake County are not winning. The parents of Lake County are not winning. The school administration of Lake County is not winning."